Deals: Best Buy knocks $200 off all Retina MacBook Pros; others discount by up to $650 [u]

Big box retailer Best Buy is holding a 48-hour sale that ends Saturday at midnight, slashing the price of all MacBook Pro with Retina display models by $200, while also offering $100 iTunes Gift Cards for $85. Meanwhile, other Apple resellers have discounted fully loaded MacBook Pro with Retina display BTO configurations by as much as $650, while supplies last.

Per usual, Amazon was quick to match Best Buy's pricing on all Retina MacBook Pros. However, Best Buy now charge sales tax on all orders. By comparison, MacMall only charges sales tax in CA, IL, NY, TN, MN, GA, NC, and WI, Amazon only in AZ, CA, KS, KY, NJ, NY, ND, PA, TX, and WA, while B&H Photo only charges sales tax in NY. Therefore, readers not residing in one of the aforementioned states are still bound to find their lowest final price at Amazon, MacMall or B&H, as shown in the guides below.

For its part in the discounted pricing, MacMall offers AppleInsider readers the absolute lowest prices anywhere on most MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros and iMacs when using the links in our price guides to activate the Promo Code field on MacMall's product pages and then manually applying coupon code APPLEINSIDER01 for an addition 3% savings.

Similarly, B&H Photo offers AppleInsider readers exclusive discounts on AppleCare 3-Year Extended Protection Plans when purchased alongside new Macs, yielding the lowest prices anywhere on most Mac+AppleCare bundles, all of which can be seen daily in our Macs+AppleCare Price Guide.

The Manhattan-based superstore also let us know that — while supplies last — they are blowing out a few fully-loaded or well-equipped MacBook Pros with Retina display for between $400 and $650 off MSRP, all of which are current-gen models:

[Editors Note: This was a code error and has since been corrected, see below]

Those savings are fake.

For example, the $1150 'savings' is given as discount on the 2.5 GHz 13" rMBP with 768 GB SSD. The price chart shows a list price of $2999. When I configure it on Apple's site, the actual price is $2399 - so the savings are only $550 instead of $1150. Many of the other list prices are wrong, too.

Now, there are some nice savings there, but it would be nice if they bothered to check their figures before writing an entire story about the 'massive savings'.

If you go to the B&H link, they show the correct pricing with a $550 savings. B&H must be wanting to get rid of inventory since this is the slowest 13" rMBP available. They probably got a few with the huge SSD in them and found people didn't want to spend this much for the small MBP. Might be same reason for the others B&H isn't selling. The other vendors look like they've sold out of most of the more expensive configurations.

For example, the $1150 'savings' is given as discount on the 2.5 GHz 13" rMBP with 768 GB SSD. The price chart shows a list price of $2999. When I configure it on Apple's site, the actual price is $2399 - so the savings are only $550 instead of $1150. Many of the other list prices are wrong, too.

Now, there are some nice savings there, but it would be nice if they bothered to check their figures before writing an entire story about the 'massive savings'.

They aren't fake savings. The original MSRP of that model was $2999. Apple dropped the price in February of all MacBook Pros. Some retailers kept the original MSRP so our system pulled in the original MSRP from them. They've since sold out but it didn't update. We've now pushed the update. Thanks.

[Editors Note: This was a code error and has since been corrected, see below]

Those savings are fake.

For example, the $1150 'savings' is given as discount on the 2.5 GHz 13" rMBP with 768 GB SSD. The price chart shows a list price of $2999. When I configure it on Apple's site, the actual price is $2399 - so the savings are only $550 instead of $1150. Many of the other list prices are wrong, too.

Now, there are some nice savings there, but it would be nice if they bothered to check their figures before writing an entire story about the 'massive savings'.

These are really some incredible prices. I am thinking of a 13" rMBP for my son, and the Apple **Education** Store price for the 2.5/8/512 is $1849 (with a fairly chintzy $100 iTunes gift card thrown in, which we will not need) -- check it it out. MacMall advertises it here for $1548.

They aren't fake savings. The original MSRP of that model was $2999. Apple dropped the price in February of all MacBook Pros. Some retailers kept the original MSRP so our system pulled in the original MSRP from them. They've since sold out but it didn't update. We've now pushed the update. Thanks.

That's a ridiculous way of looking at it. The CURRENT list price for that model is $2399. Calculating discount off some ancient price is dishonest.

OTOH, I could consider that aluminum used to be $1,000 per gram. So when I buy a pound of aluminum, it's 99.999% off, right?